Mashrafe analyses takeaways from Zimbabwe series

Dhaka, Jan 24 (IANS) Following a Twenty20 International series packed with Tests and tune-ups, Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza now has a fair idea of what the World Twenty20 squad might look like.

Bangladesh suffered their second successive T20I defeat against Zimbabwe on Friday as the series ended in a 2-2 draw at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna, reports bdnews24.com.

With experimentation the buzzword of the series, Bangladesh handed T20I debuts to six uncapped players in four matches hoping to find a suitable combination for the showcase event of the shortest format.

“We’ve got some fair idea about the likely combination. If you are talking about a 15-man squad, eight or nine of them were already there, but some things still needed to be looked at,” Mashrafe said.

“We have now got an idea of the players’ abilities. But above all, we must be prepared for the challenges of Asia Cup. In T20s, matches can change in an over or two. We need to keep that in mind.”

Mashrafe insisted the team needs to work hard with the Asia Cup in mind that commences in their backyard from February 24, ahead of the World T20 in India in March.

“(Fixing our mistakes) before the Asia Cup will be the biggest challenge for us. We did do well in some areas. Some of us did well. But there were some things that did not happen as per plan. The good thing is there is still a month left before the commencement of Asia Cup. We might be able to sort things out before that,” said Mashrafe.

The skipper, however, lamented the straight losses that gave away a 2-0 lead in the series against Zimbabwe.

“At the end of the day winning was the goal, experiment or not. We could not bowl well in the last two matches. There were some positives in the batting but it was not balanced.”